My name is Rosie and I have spent my university placement year at Bigwave media, as a Junior Digital Account Manager.
Currently in the third year of my Marketing degree at Plymouth University, I approached Bigwave back in October in the hope that I might be able to carry out my placement year with them. As my first experience of working at a marketing agency, 7 months on I can honestly say I’ve learnt a huge amount and it really has been a great way to spend my placement year.
Working predominantly alongside Digital Account Executive Laura, my day-to-day tasks include monitoring and responding to clients’ social media activity, producing and scheduling social media content using Hootsuite and writing and publishing blog articles for Bigwave’s blog site using WordPress. As well as marketing and industry news-themed blog posts for Bigwave, I have also written a number of health and fitness-based blog posts for clients. Other content I have produced has been in the form of monthly fitness memes (quotes and images) and infographics – which involved carrying out research and writing design briefs for them. Over the course of my placement, I have learnt how to input these jobs into the agency’s design workflow system to schedule for design. Each month, Laura and I produce in-depth social media reports for a number of clients which has provided me with a great insight into the long-term impact of our work.
I have been fortunate enough to get involved in a variety of other jobs and projects since working at Bigwave. Working with the web development team, I have enjoyed copywriting, sitemapping and inputting content for various websites, often using Joomla. Digital Director, Simon, also gave me the fantastic opportunity to work on an article around Marketing Trends for ukactive. More recently, I have helped re-launch Bigwave’s monthly newsletter – The Board, which I have contributed to and managed the distribution to our mailing list each month.
I’ve found Bigwave media to be a brilliant place to work, with an extremely friendly team and a great ethos. Aside from the invaluable marketing experience I feel I’ve gained since being here, I’ve also loved getting involved in team events and office perks. Some of my favourites have included fundraising for – and participating in – the brutal but exhilarating 10K RockSolidRace team challenge, bacon Fridays, taking part in the annual Bigwave Easter Egg Hunt, attending the launch event of Exeter Business Games 2015 and going on numerous team nights out!
I came to Bigwave with the aim of learning more about marketing in the leisure industry, developing my digital and copy writing skills and fueling my interest in health and fitness. Looking back at everything I’ve learnt and achieved over the past 7 months, the whole experience has gone above and beyond my expectations and I feel well equipped for when the time comes to head back to uni and hit the books for my final year.
Thanks a lot for an awesome placement year, Bigwave!
